


These Traitorous Whispers

by stellacanta



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 01:47:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18378437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: It was an open and shut mission. A simple one really. Head into enemy lines, see if the supposed defector really had any information to give them, and get out.It was why they had sent Cor, and only Cor, to get the information. Only it wasn’t so open and shut, and Cor had ended up getting captured, and hurt.There were only four people that knew about the mission to gather intel, and King Regis tasks Nyx Ulric to ferret out the mole.(Well, four people and Cor, but Cor wasn’t talking.)





	These Traitorous Whispers

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone is familiar with the book/movie tinker tailor soldier spy ... yeah this is kinda based on that lol  
> Also I'm not a big draucor shipper, but I think that ship grew on me while I was writing this lol

When King Regis requested a private audience with Nyx in his personal office just off the throne room, he hadn’t been sure what to expect. Crowe, who had been glancing over his shoulder, had teased that maybe he had gone too far in pranking the captain of the Kingsglaive and the big boss was calling him to heel. He had just shot the other glaive an unimpressed side glare before he went about the rest of the day, the strange request in the back of his mind.

He hadn’t thought about it again until the day of the meeting and he was waiting outside imposing wooden doors for his private meeting with the king. The seconds seemed to  stretch into hours before the receptionist just outside the door smiled at him and let him in. “Nyx Ulric here to see you, your majesty,” the receptionist greeted cheerfully before bowing and closing the door behind him.

Nyx gulped and tried to not let it feel like some sort of death sentence. He placed his fist over his heart and bowed. “Your majesty,” he said as the monarch turned around to face him.

“Glaive Ulric, just the man I wanted to see.” The king gestured for him to take a seat across the desk. “Please, sit.”

He plastered a polite smile on his face as he sat. The chair was plush and more comfortable than any office chair he had sat before in his life. It wasn’t surprising though, given how this was the king’s private office. The king wasn’t sitting however, he seemed to be rearranging some papers on his desk. He waited a moment before he spoke. “What was it you wanted to see me for, your majesty?”

The king looked up at him before giving a distracted wave. “Oh, this and that.” Finally, King Regis took a seat from across him, steepling his fingers in front of him. “What have you heard of the last mission that Cor Leonis was sent on?” Nyx opened and closed his mouth, not sure what the king wanted him to say. Everyone had heard of the last mission Cor the immortal had gone on. That mess of a mission that had resulted in a prisoner swap and Cor getting regulated to desk duty because it was too much of a risk to put him on the field anymore. The king sighed and waved his hand. “Oh, speak freely would you, Glaive Ulric? I know everyone’s heard of what happened to Cor.”

“All I know was that it was a mess, sire, and that the marshal was in the hospital for a solid week after the prisoner swap.” A pause as he looked away, unable to meet the intense look the king was pinning him with. “Um, not that he was injured that much, I think they just wanted to make sure he was okay, your majesty.”

The king snorted. “Indeed, and he knocked out three nurses to try to get let out early. I went to see him when he was in the infirmary too.” A sigh and then the king looked at him with a wary look. “Nyx Ulric, I believe there’s a mole within the highest ranks of this government.” Before Nyx could response, King Regis had held up a finger. “Now, before you say something, I want to let you know this. There were only four people that knew of Cor’s fateful mission to Niflheim. Besides me, and Cor of course, in that room you also had Clarus Amicitia, my shield, Titus Drautos, the captain of the kingsglaive, Weskham Armaugh, the royal diplomatic advisor who has since left the post, and Fidelis Ursinus, a council member.” The king stared deeply in his eyes as if to communicate something from gaze along.

“Why is his majesty telling me this,” he asked finally after a long pause.

The king simply grinned in response. “Because I want you to find the mole, Nyx Ulric, and I believe it’s one of those four men.

…

_“Was any of this real?” There was a cool wall that separated the two of them. If it wasn’t for the breathing that he could just hear on the other side, Cor would have thought himself alone. He closed his eyes and wondered if the man on the other side was sitting with his back pressed against the wall as he was. He wondered if the man had cried or had been crying, if there were tear tracks down his face that mirrored his own. “Well? You’re awfully quiet, today. Nothing to say?”_

_Please, he begged, say something._

_“Cor.” A pause as he squeezed his eyes shut and he wondered what he wanted to hear from the other man. There was a long inhaled breath before the man spoke again. “I did what I had to do, I’m sorry that you were caught up in this.”_

_“So you’re not sorry at all, are you?” No response, he didn’t know if he was expecting one at this point. “Of course not.”_

…

The king had granted him access to each of the four men to determine their guilt or innocence. Well, Weskham Armaugh had apparently fucked off all the way to Altissia. That might have been enough for Nyx to suspect him, but it seemed just too good of a timing. For the former advisor to leave after making a public spectacle about Cor just two days after he was brought back? No the timing was too suspect, and honestly what was the point of having a mole if he just leaves when his cover might get blown?

It could have been the former advisor, but Nyx’s gut told him no. The mole had to be amongst the three other men that the king had named. (And if it wasn’t? Well, then it was time to pay Mr. Armaugh a visit in Altissia but not until then.) He had arranged a meeting with the king’s shield in a few days, but there were two things he wanted to check first. The first was a log of who was there the day that they found out Cor Leonis was taken, and the second was a little talk with the marshal himself.

Thankfully, this was an instance where he could knock down two stones with one bird. Part of the responsibility of the crownsguard was to keep track of the goings in and out of people in the citadel. It shouldn’t be too hard to beg off the visitors log for that day. Also, since Cor Leonis was the marshal of the crownsguard. Well, he would just have to ask around and see if the boss was in, wasn’t he?

…

_He was babbling, and he didn’t know why. (Well he did know why, but he refused to give words to those reasons.) “I loved you, you know. I love you with all my heart, still. Was any of this real? Did you get close to me to-”_

_“Cor Leonis,” the man from behind the wall spoke, strong and firm like he had spoken all those days and nights before. “My dear lionheart, you were the best thing to have happened to me in all these years I have lived. Doubt my loyalty to this country and the crown all you must, but never doubt the feelings I have for you. The nights we spent together. My heart, I-”_

_“-don’t say another word.” Cor’s eyes were closed as he leaned his head against the wall. “I don’t want to hear them. Not now. Not when you’re basically begging for your life.”_

_“Cor … “_

…

What should have been two straightforward tasks turned out to be not so straightforward. First off the visitor’s logs for the day of Cor’s capture, or rather the confirmation of Cor’s capture, had gone missing. Even the guard who was responsible for maintaining the logs seemed surprised by this fact, and of course the guard who was on duty that day was off somewhere. (If the guy, or girl, could even remember who had showed up that day and when given the day in question was four months ago.)

Then there was Cor Leonis, the marshal of the crownsguard, who was less than helpful when he requested an interview with him. “Did I notice anything weird on the day I was to be deployed to Niflheim,” Cor repeated with furrowed eyebrows. There was an incredulous look on the man’s face, as if he couldn’t believe what was being asked of him.

“Indeed, did you meet anyone that you otherwise wouldn’t have? Did someone ask anything strange of you? Things like that.” Nyx shrugged and leaned back in the uncomfortable seat lazily, like he didn’t have a care in the world. As Cor paced back and forth behind his desk, he leaned forward to peek at a photo frame the marshal had on his desk. He just managed to get  glimpse of Cor being hugged by another man before the marshal noticed what he was looking at and turned the photo down with a thunk. Nyx looked back up at the marshal with a wry grin. “Didn’t expect you to have personal effects.”

“Didn’t expect you to try to poke into people’s personal lives, Glaive Ulric,” the marshal responded with a grunt as he sat down across from him. Nyx gave him a perfectly polite grin as he mulled over the presence in the photo. The marshal looked much younger than he did currently, and so did the other person. Still whoever it was, they looked familiar as if Nyx had seen it before, or several times before. Cor spoke before Nyx could think about it took much. “And, no, nothing stranger than usual happened the day of the mission. Kissed the wife goodbye, met up with your captain, Drautos, to discuss transportation, turned down the offer of having a glaive tail me. What I expected really.”

“You have a wife,” Nyx asked more out of amusement than any pressing desire to know. Now that he looked closely, he could see a plain golden band on the man’s left ring finger.

Cor snorted. “That’s because I’m good at keeping my private life private.” The marshal shook his head and then looked at him a moment later, eyes narrowed. “Did someone set you up on this?” Nyx didn’t so much as twitch. The marshal’s eyes narrowed further. “If I ask you who asked you to do this would you answer?”

“I haven’t the faintest clue what you’re talking about marshal,” Nyx replied in a perfectly serene tone, with nary a crack in his polite facade.

The man before him sighed. “Of course, you don’t.”

…

_“You sent me out to die.”_

_No response._

_“Did you even care? Was I just a thorn in your side? Would-”_

_“Cor, just be thankful you’re alive and here.” Cor shook his head but the man continued before he could say anything. “I cared, Cor. I worried about you every minute when you were gone, my dear heart, and when I found out-” There was a shaky sigh. “-I did everything I could to get you back.” The man on the other side of the wall was probably smiling right now. And the worst thing was that behind his closed eyes lids, Cor could still see just what sort of look the man was making. A fond one that caused the edges of his eyes to crinkle in a way that wanted to make Cor kiss him. Still._

_He clenched his hands into fists._

…

If he thought his interview with Cor went poorly, his interviews with the three men in Insomnia that the king suspected went just as badly, if not worse. The councilman was curt with his responses, the shield was incredulous that he was questioning _him_ in relation to Cor’s capture, and the captain had basically corroborated Cor’s version of things before sending him off to watch the wall for the rest of the day.

Nyx was no closer to finding out who had done it then he was the day the king had given him the mission and he was already half-planning his trip to Altissia. “Ugh, I can’t believe people are so _guarded_ about what happened that day! I know it sucked that Cor got caught and all but you can’t give me a crumb or _something_?”

It was Crowe, feisty, intelligent Crowe that gave him the crumb he needed. “You were sick that week weren’t you? Down with a fever?” She chewed on some too dry kebab meat and washed it down with crappy beer, the only kind that was ever served.

“Yeah?” He turned towards the other glaive owlishly. “What about it?”

Crowe looked at Lib as if to ask permission to speak. Lib snorted and took a deep swig of his beer and Crowe shrugged. “The captain wasn’t there that day, apparently, he had business in the citadel that required him to show up there at five and basically pound the doors in. Luche was responsible for us that whole day.” She nodded at Pelna who moaned and let his head fall to the table.

“Don’t remind me,” Pelna said through the wood. “I’m only saying this because Luche isn’t here, but the guy was an asshole and my legs are still sore from all the laps and warps he made us do. We had to be ready to deploy? Screw that we were warping all over the city for the entire day in the guise of training.”

Nyx’s mouth formed an O as he digested what he was told. “Luche was in charge that day?”

Pelna raised his head from the table and nodded. “ ‘S what I said, apparently the captain put him in charge for the da- where are you going?”

“Laundry,” Nyx said with a shit eating grin as he stood up. “Forgot I put it in the wash when I left, better go back before the cranky lady downstairs dumps it on the floor because the other two washers were in use.” There were jeers as he left and Crowe gave him her usual smack on the arm in farewell.

(He had a feeling he knew who the traitor was.)

…

_“So what do we do now?” Cor got only silence in return. He sighed and wondered if the man on the other side of the wall would ever give him any real answers. Cor had a feeling the answer was no. “They’re going to have you executed for what you did you know.”_

_“To you?”_

_Cor hummed. “No, for feeding information to the Nifs this entire time. Not just what happened to me.” He looked down at his hands._

_There was a pause before he heard the man on the other side of the wall speak again, this time softly. “Spend the night with me, dear one? Or just until they come to take me away.”_

_He shrugged. Might as well at this point. “Sure.” A pause. “Want to talk about anything in particular?”_

_There was a weak chuckle from the other side of the wall. “What’s our apartment like? I feel like I haven’t seen it in a solid week due to how busy I’ve been.”_

_Cor squinted at the opposite wall. “Well, your jacket is still draped over the kitchen chair where you left it, and-”_

…

Nyx had tried to find Cor Leonis before he reported his findings to the king. The man deserved to know who the traitor that got him captured was after all. Especially since- he shook his head, no best not to think about it. Just find Cor first, Nyx Ulric, think about everything else later.

He looked everywhere, spent a solid two hours before his meeting with the king looking for Cor, but he couldn’t find the man. When the time arrived for his meeting with the king, he sighed and headed up to the private office next to the throne room.

Nyx blinked when he saw that  Cor was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Oh, he spent the entire time looking for Cor and he was in the office with the king. Okay. He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and gave King Regis the traditional salute before he straightened. “Your majesty, I have found the identity of the traitor.”

“Oh?” The king raised one regal eyebrow and glanced once at Cor before looking at Nyx. “Well, who is it then, Glaive Ulric?”

Nyx’s eyes met Cor’s as he spoke. “Sire, I believe the traitor to be Titus Drautos, the captain of the Kingsglaive.”


End file.
